Executives at other airlines savored the federal government's rejection of United Airlines' request for a loan guarantee on Wednesday night, after some of them had lobbied intensely against any bailout.
"At the end of the day, it's good for our industry, and it's good for the American people," Gordon M. Bethune, Continental Airlines' chief executive, said on Wednesday night, speaking of the rejection.
United's competitors are likely to steal some of the airline's passengers as it struggles to restore its finances and suffers through the distraction and publicity of a probable bankruptcy filing, industry analysts said. American Airlines, United's main rival in Chicago and one of its chief competitors in California, stands to benefit the most, analysts said.
But the biggest prize would be United's legal rights to fly overseas routes, which a judge could order the company to sell if it files for bankruptcy protection. The jewel in United's system is its extensive schedule of flights across the Pacific to Asia, much of it acquired in 1985 when United brought the rights to fly those routes from a struggling Pan American World Airways.
United's rivals sent their own financial analyses of the airline's condition to the Air Transportation Stabilization Board, the federal body created after the Sept. 11 attacks to help the industry. The executives argued that United's business was broken and that the US$1.8 billion in loan guarantees it sought would end up being wasted, ultimately to be paid by taxpayers.
Douglas M. Steenland, the president of Northwest Airlines, praised the board for doing "an incredible amount of work" and called its decision "the right one."
In the coming months, the loan rejection and even a bankruptcy filing is likely to lead to some cutbacks in service at United, which is based outside Chicago and has a major hub at Chicago's O'Hare Airport, but travelers should expect the airline to maintain most of its routes, travel agents argued. US Airways is already in bankruptcy protection, and Continental emerged from earlier bankruptcies to become one of the industry's stronger carriers, the agents noted.
"In the near term, it will mean nothing for travelers," said Hal F. Rosenbluth, the chairman of Rosenbluth International, a large travel agency based in Philadelphia. "The stigma of an airline bankruptcy has, for all intents and purposes, lost its negativity over the years."
Industry executives said they had expected the government board to reject United's request and were surprised only by its timing.
"I was a little surprised they didn't wait," said C. Thomas Nulty, president of Navigant International, a travel agency based in Denver. "But I guess they decided that even if it went United's way it wouldn't have made a difference."
United executives, while vowing to do everything they can to avoid bankruptcy, say that their rivals opposed the loan guarantee primarily so that they can benefit from the company's troubles.
United executives, while vowing to do everything they can to avoid bankruptcy, say that their rivals opposed the loan guarantee primarily so that they can benefit from the company's troubles.
J. Dennis Hastert, the Republican lawmaker from Illinois who is speaker of the House, "thought United presented a fair and balanced proposal to the board," according to Peter M. Jeffries, a spokesman.
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